I’m writing this while simmering in the mild, buzzy afterglow that follows attending a beer festival. In the past few years, Humboldt’s beerfests have slowly come back, and the return of Strange Brew, a benefit for the Eureka Theater, feels like a full-circle moment. With at least three dozen libations to sample, I tried, I […]
Eat + Drink
Posted inOn the Table
‘Don’t Wait to Be Asked’
Feeding folks amid loss of SNAP benefits Avi Leibson estimates the cost of the ingredients for the big pot of chicken soup he made in his Falafel Love kitchen, aside from the few unsold roasted chicken quarters from the day’s special, at around $10. He added potatoes, sweet potatoes, croutons made from the day’s leftover […]
Posted inOn the Table
Two Bags of Apples
Doing what you can with what you have I am a perfectionist. A lot of the things I want to do don’t get done because I am afraid I won’t do them perfectly. This is why I don’t have a few dozen of my own novels on the bookshelf: I instead put my prodigious imagination […]
Posted inOn the Table
Before the Feast
Cooking for Arcata’s Our Lady of Fatima Celebration Maria Homen peels back the paper covering one of a half dozen metal baking pans to reveal rows of browned and bumpy filhos (pronounced “fee-losh” with the lush rounding of so many Portuguese words at the end) tossed in table sugar. She and the crew of ladies […]
Posted inOn the Table
Trophy Burgers
NCJ Burger Week winners Not everything is a competition. But this year, NCJ Burger Week was. For the first time, diners were able to vote for their favorites among the 35 participating restaurants in three categories — Best Use of Local Ingredients, Most Creative and Best Overall — with winners scoring year-long custodianship of unreasonably […]
Posted inOn the Table
Christina’s Filipino Cuisine at the Market
When Christina Lorenzo boarded a flight from the Philippines to Florida in 2003, she had $20 on her and luggage packed with two weeks’ worth of instant noodles and Spam. In Manila, where Lorenzo was born and raised, she’d applied for a job with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Orlando. Once she got it, her family […]
Posted inOn the Table
Beer-flavored Beer at Pale Moon Brewing Co.
Tucked away around the corner from the CVS and Safeway in Arcata, Pale Moon Brewing Co. (600 F St., Suite 7) looks nondescript from the outside. Step inside, however, and you’ll find it inviting and lovably pubby. You sit among the metal brightwork — so pretty — and have a pint or two with an […]
Posted inEat + Drink
The Yangs of Curry Leaf
When Alexander Yang moved to Humboldt County amid the pandemic lockdown in 2020, he hoped to build his relationship with his mother More Yang, who goes by Wendy and had moved north from Fresno 15 years earlier. For the past couple of years, their plans for Kogiri, a Korean barbecue spot in Arcata, have stalled […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Chili Town: A Look Back at Fieri’s Fair Cook-off
Coming from his sold-out meet and greet, dressed in snakeskin boots and smoking a cigar, Guy Fieri took the stage to announce the winners of Humboldt County Fair’s Chili Cook-off, calling it “some of the best chili” he has ever seen. The grandstands were the epicenter of a flavor explosion on Aug. 21, as 12 […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Summer Abundance
I have a pretty good sense of how much produce I can eat, which usually prevents me from going overboard, but sometimes doesn’t, particularly in the summer. When market stalls and farmstands overflow with an abundance of colorful, flavorful vegetables and fruit, restraint remains parked outside. I often have a surfeit of zucchini or summer […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Twenty-nine Pies
Given our collective scientific knowledge and culinary skill — and here I mean the “we” of humanity — should we not have adjusted our flour and fat ratios, balanced our spices, determined the proper slice dimensions and cooking temperature to have already, some 700 years into baking variations of it, arrived at The Apple Pie? […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Rolling Out a Carrot Cake
I’m a sucker for sweet treats, such as homemade cakes, tarts, and pies. If I want to whip up something new, I practice until my brain surrenders. Lately, l have been on a mission to perfect my carrot cake and l finally succeeded. For years, carrot cake was not on my list of favorites. The […]